When I was a kid, Home Ec was a required course in junior high, and we all had to learn how to make English muffin pizzas in a toaster oven. Did you make English muffin pizzas? Or bagel pizzas? This is the same thing, but made with a flour tortilla, or “wrap” as they are...

Are you an oatmeal lover? Recently I started adding strawberries to my breakfast oatmeal and thought the combination would make a pretty good muffin too. Several experimental batches later I now have a strawberry oatmeal muffin that I’m proud to share with you. Here’s the deal, you don’t just want to toss some chopped strawberries...

My mother has always taken delight at the patches of mint that thrive along the edges of her house. “It keeps away the ants!” she insists. I have no idea if this actually works, but having her advice firmly imprinted into the core of my being, I too cultivate patches of mint here and there....

Los Angeles, 1961 When I look at this picture of my mom and me, words fail me. So let me just wish you all a very happy Mother’s Day, for our mothers, our grandmothers, and for everyone who mothers. Continue reading “Happy Mother's Day”...

This little chicken salad went to the market. This little chicken salad stayed home. This little chicken salad took a tour through Louisiana and ran off with some cheeky spicy remoulade sauce and who knows where they’ll end up? Continue reading “Cajun Chicken Salad”...

Sugar snap peas are a garden staple in the spring. At least around here you plant them in November or December and see them poking out of the ground late February to early March, depending on how warm or cold a winter it has been. In my garden they snake their way up a loosely...

With the warming weather, our lemons are practically falling of the trees. Here’s a lovely way to use them, homemade limoncello from guest contributor Garrett McCord. Enjoy! ~Elise Limoncello is a traditional digestif (a drink served after the meal to theoretically aid in digestion, but also an excuse for another nip) served throughout Southern Italy,...

Try this one for breakfast. A reader from Alaska recently mentioned to me that instead of fried with corned beef or ham, the way he likes his potatoes in the morning is as smoked salmon hash, potatoes cubed and fried with onions and mixed in with flakes of hot smoked salmon. Uh, yes, please! I...

Shimogamo Jinja, Kyoto, Japan Forgive me please, for a brief diversion from our usual posting of recipes. I recently took two weeks off from cooking and blogging to travel to Japan, my first extended vacation in the nine years or so that I’ve been publishing this site. For those of you who might be interested...

Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares his quick and easy version of the Greek classic avgolemono soup, a chicken soup with lemon and egg. ~Elise The mixture of eggs, lemon and hot broth is a classic combination in Greek cooking. And if there is a classic dish that highlights this combination, it is the...

About once a week, for my entire upbringing, my mother would prepare a very simple side of pasta with a sweet, buttery tomato sauce. Usually she used elbow macaroni pasta, because usually a small bowl of tomato pasta would be served alongside tuna macaroni salad, our standard Catholic fish-on-Fridays family meal. Mom would just make...

When my friend Kerissa Barron first told me about this buttery rice pilaf, I couldn’t wait to try it. Then she told me it had saffron in it. Uh oh. For some reason, saffron is a spice that sort of tastes like soap to me. Not a big fan. But, I’ll try just about anything...